The Blue Owl Restaurant & Bakery’s legendary dish has become a towering symbol of Missouri comfort food.
Mary Hostetter opened The Blue Owl Restaurant & Bakery following the 1984 holiday season when she found herself exhausted after filling over 30,000 Christmas cookie orders from her home kitchen. The 32-year-old mother of two decided to expand her business by renting a historic Kimmswick restaurant building.
Several years later, the Mississippi River rose 50 feet during the Great Flood of 1993. The river flooded so high that it licked the restaurant’s deck. This national disaster inspired the idea for the restaurant’s nationally known dish: the Levee High Apple Pie.
Though The Blue Owl was already a popular stop for day-trippers, after the flood, it became famous for this apple pie. Stuffed with 18 apples, the Levee High Apple Pie weighs 10 pounds. A caramel-and-pecan version mimics the dirt and rocks that shore up the levee.
• The Blue Owl Restaurant & Bakery
Subscribe
Get a Missouri Life Magazine Subscription & Save Up to 69% Off Newsstand Prices!
Subscribe Today
Soon, the pies drew nationwide media attention. By 1998, Mary was named the Restauranteur of the Year by the Greater St. Louis Restaurant Association, and The Blue Owl became a success.
Mary’s two daughters, Kim Byerly and Kelly Kindle, have their own memories of the business. Kelly remembers fall ing asleep on the bakery floor as their mother worked. Kim
recounts watching her mother bake each day late into the night to fill the pastry case at The Blue Owl. With all of the long hours and late nights spent in the bakery, Kim never predicted Mary would ever get out of the kitchen—or leave her work to the next generation.
As this Mississippi River eatery celebrated its 41st anniversary, Kim couldn’t be happier to continue on the business that her mother built.
“It’s really amazing to acquire a well-established business that people just pour into,” says Kim, 48, who, with her husband, Dan, 52, acquired The Blue Owl three years ago. “Everybody has a memory of being here or their mom taking them here or coming with their grandma.”
As a teenager, Kim was drawn more to the corporate world than the kitchen. As she completed a business degree at the University of Missouri–St. Louis while continuing to work at The Blue Owl, she saw the business with new eyes. “It had so much potential,” Kim says.
Kim added wedding cakes to The Blue Owl’s offerings and created a wholesale division. Meanwhile, Jamie and Bobby Deen, hosts of Food Network’s program Road Tasted, consid- ered reviewing the restaurant. Their only condition was that they taste the restaurant’s apple pie before featuring it. “I hurried up and figured out how to ship a pie,” Kim says. In 2006, Jamie and Bobby featured The Blue Owl on the show, and the brothers claimed that the Levee High Apple Pie was the best apple pie they had ever eaten.
Today, The Blue Owl ships about 20,000 items a year. While world travelers stop to try the pies and other favorites on the menu like carrot cake, strawberry salad, and white chicken chili, the biggest impact the new owners hope to make is in the lives of their employees. The restaurant makes a special effort to hire employees who are on a journey to recovery. On The Blue Owl’s paneled entry wall are photos and faith testimonies of employees in recovery from addictions. Kim started the collection when she too was struggling; her photo hangs among the others.
• The Blue Owl Restaurant & Bakery
Staff have been excited to share their stories, she says. “To go from that life of addiction or alcoholism to the life they’re living today. It’s just beautiful,” Kim says.
Mary, the restaurant’s founder, is happy that the business has passed on to the next generation, now in Kim and Dan’s hands. “I don’t know that I could have given it up were it not for family,” Mary says. “They were so willing, so I feel so blessed.”
6116 Second Street, Kimmswick • TheBlueOwl.com
This article was originally printed in the March/April 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
